London Month of the Dead - A Tour of Executions, Epidemics and Epitaphs

THE ANATOMY OF DEATH A Tour of Executions, Epidemics and Epitaphs with Sally Blomfield Saturday 24th October 2026 at 11 am & 2 pm Beneath the streets of the City of London lies a darker history, where plague, punishment and premature death shaped the lives of generations. Join us for a walk through the capital’s oldest streets as we uncover the places where criminals met their end, epidemics swept through crowded parishes, surgeons learned their grisly trade and the dead refused to rest quietly. Beginning in the shadow of Newgate Prison and ending beneath the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral, this fascinating tour explores London’s macabre past through the sites where history unfolded. Along the way you’ll discover the horrors of public execution at Newgate and Smithfield, the world of the resurrection men and the Barber-Surgeons, the devastation of the Great Plague and the Bills of Mortality, moving memorials to lives lost too soon, the final resting place of Isabella, the “She-Wolf of France”, and the tragic tale of how a visit to London may have brought tuberculosis back to the Brontë family. Tour Highlights * Newgate Prison and the spectacle of public execution * Smithfield and the burning of the Protestant martyrs * The Golden Boy of Pye Corner and the resurrection men * The Barber-Surgeons’ Garden and the history of anatomy * Cloth Fair, plague pits and the Bills of Mortality * The Watts Memorial and London’s forgotten epitaphs * Greyfriars and the tomb of Isabella of France * The Brontë sisters, tuberculosis and literary tragedy Tickets £15 including a 20% donation to Tower Hamlets Cemetery. Please click here to purchase. Sally Blomfield Sally Blomfield is a qualified Green Badge City of London Tour Guide and former Chartered Town Planner with nearly four decades of experience shaping and understanding the historic built environment. Drawing on a lifelong passion for London’s people and places, she brings the city’s hidden history vividly to life through engaging walks that reveal the stories behind its streets, buildings and forgotten corners.

THE ANATOMY OF DEATH
A Tour of Executions, Epidemics and Epitaphs with Sally Blomfield
Saturday 24th October 2026 at 11 am & 2 pm

Beneath the streets of the City of London lies a darker history, where plague, punishment and premature death shaped the lives of generations. Join us for a walk through the capital’s oldest streets as we uncover the places where criminals met their end, epidemics swept through crowded parishes, surgeons learned their grisly trade and the dead refused to rest quietly.

Beginning in the shadow of Newgate Prison and ending beneath the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral, this fascinating tour explores London’s macabre past through the sites where history unfolded. Along the way you’ll discover the horrors of public execution at Newgate and Smithfield, the world of the resurrection men and the Barber-Surgeons, the devastation of the Great Plague and the Bills of Mortality, moving memorials to lives lost too soon, the final resting place of Isabella, the “She-Wolf of France”, and the tragic tale of how a visit to London may have brought tuberculosis back to the Brontë family.

Tour Highlights
* Newgate Prison and the spectacle of public execution
* Smithfield and the burning of the Protestant martyrs
* The Golden Boy of Pye Corner and the resurrection men
* The Barber-Surgeons’ Garden and the history of anatomy
* Cloth Fair, plague pits and the Bills of Mortality
* The Watts Memorial and London’s forgotten epitaphs
* Greyfriars and the tomb of Isabella of France
* The Brontë sisters, tuberculosis and literary tragedy

Tickets £15 including a 20% donation to Tower Hamlets Cemetery. Please click here to purchase.

Sally Blomfield
Sally Blomfield is a qualified Green Badge City of London Tour Guide and former Chartered Town Planner with nearly four decades of experience shaping and understanding the historic built environment. Drawing on a lifelong passion for London’s people and places, she brings the city’s hidden history vividly to life through engaging walks that reveal the stories behind its streets, buildings and forgotten corners.